Gary Oldman's Oscar Speech Is Ready to Go

He's Ryan Gosling's favorite actor. Harry Potter co-star Jason Isaacs says he's his favorite, too. The Film Encyclopedia describes him as an "enormously talented stage and screen performer." Empire named him one of the 100 sexiest stars of all time. Yet, until a few weeks ago, Gary Oldman was arguably the greatest living actor never nominated for an Academy Award. In a career that's spanned 30 years, he's appeared in some 40 films, including box-office hits like Bram Stoker's Dracula, the Harry Potter and Batman films, as well as Sid and Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears, Romeo Is Bleeding and at least a dozen other indies in which his performance is the main attraction. Blame it on the Academy's tendency to play things safe, nominating more conventionally accomplished performances while ignoring the bold, way-out ones (Oldman describes them as "bouncing off walls") the actor is famous for.

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Oldman is up for the Best Actor prize for his turn as the perspicacious British spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Unlike some actors who minimize the honor, he's excited about it. "I'm having a very good time. Plus, I'm in very good company," he says of the other nominees. Speaking softly with a British accent, Oldman says his nomination developed its own momentum. "I know it surprises some people that I haven't been nominated until now. There wasn't a conscious effort on my part this time, although it did take a bit of work to get to the final five [nominees]."

Based on the classic John le Carré novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy received excellent reviews. "It did great business in the U.K. and then that continued in America," Oldman explains. "I got to the point where I could either get off the train or ride it and see what happens."

Ironically, Oldman's performance as Smiley is by far the most restrained of his career. If anything, that made the role harder to play. "Thankfully all that work going on underneath, all that subtext, wasn't something I had to search for. I was always bringing the book in. Smiley is complete. He's one of those iconic literary characters, like Sherlock Holmes. And then I had the added bonus of being able to consult le Carré, who is still very much alive, 80 going on 25."

Oldman's performance didn't receive a Golden Globe nomination (considered a bellwether for the Oscars), so he bypassed the ceremonies. However, around the same time, he received what he called "a phone call out of the clear blue sky" inviting him to participate in Miuccia Prada's menswear show in Milan with fellow actors Adrien Brody, Emile Hirsch, Willem Defoe and Tim Roth. "I'd never done anything like that before. We were on our way to Europe, and it coincided with the opening of Tinker in Paris and Berlin, which is where I heard I was nominated for the Oscar. I thought it might be fun. The way it's run, it's quite an operation. Very classy and well synchronized. I had a great costume. You walk out once and then they ask you to repeat in the finale. So apart from the time spent with the fitting, what is it, four minutes' work? Can't be bad."

Oldman feels his best performance is in the theatrically little-seen neo-noir crime film State of Grace, co-starring Sean Penn and Ed Harris. "I'm proud of that one. At the time, the studio [Orion Pictures] was a little rocky financially. They also had Dances With Wolves, and they decided to put their eggs in one basket. Our movie got little publicity. DVD has allowed it to gather a following. For a recent retrospective of my films, it's the one I requested. It's a beautiful-looking movie, and it would be nice for people to see it on a big screen."

Reflecting on his chances of taking home Oscar gold, Oldman says, "Some think Jean Dujardin [The Artist] is the favorite. Some feel the race is George Clooney [The Descendants] and me. I will have something prepared, just in case. It's the classy thing to do."